Adam Green began studying archaeology while pursuing his B.A. in anthropology from Georgia State University. After graduating, he became dedicated to developing a greater understanding of the formation of early state societies. He was particularly interested in the Indus civilization; the first urbanized state society in South Asia, because it challenges anthropologists' current understanding of state formation. After visiting South Asia for the first time in 2007, he enrolled in New York University's doctoral program in anthropology to learn more about archaeological approaches to early state societies. Since enrolling at NYU, Mr. Green has also become an affiliate of Deccan College Post-graduate and Research University. He has participated on research projects at the Harappan sites of Farmana and Karsola under the direction of Professor Vasant Shinde. For his doctoral research, Mr. Green has developed a new methodology for the examination of Harappan seals, which involves reconstructing their technical characteristics in order to identify groups of seal carvers in the past. In this way, he hopes to develop an understanding of the social processes that culiminated in the emergence of the Harappan civilization in 2600 BC.
Mr. Green's Fulbright-Nehru research project is titled as "Reconstructing Administrative Technology in the Indus Civilization." This project will focus on administrative technology in the Indus civilization, home to the earliest state society in South Asia. This project will examine the production of stamp seals in order to investigate the Indus civilization's sociopolitical organization. Indus seals are small stone objects that were engraved with imagery and writing. They were used to make impressions on clay in order to seal containers and doors, allow Indus peoples to record and regulate economic transactions. Seals from the Indus civilization have been recovered well outside of its borders, indicating that they were a vital component of a burgeoning long-distance trade network that extended as far as present day Iraq. Using a new methodology that focuses on their technological characteristics, Mr. Green hopes to characterize the social groups that produced the seals. Reconstructing the relationships between these groups will enhance our understanding of how this system operated.